Concert at Leeds Minster will stir emotions with music of First World War

A concert in Leeds tomorrow will provide a stirring and evocative reminder of the part that music played in people's lives during the dark days of the First World War.
By The Newsroom
Published 2nd Aug 2018, 06:00 BST
Last month's Bligny parade at Leeds Minster, held to remember a victory in north-eastern France that helped to change the course of the First World War.Last month's Bligny parade at Leeds Minster, held to remember a victory in north-eastern France that helped to change the course of the First World War.
Last month's Bligny parade at Leeds Minster, held to remember a victory in north-eastern France that helped to change the course of the First World War.

The free lunchtime concert is taking place at Leeds Minster and will feature popular songs from the war years, including Roses of Picardy and The Banks of Green Willow.

Its 45-minute programme will also include classical works – such as Edward Elgar’s For The Fallen – that have strong associations with remembrance.

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The pieces will be performed by Dr Simon Lindley, organist emeritus at the Minster, together with soloists Anita Wiencelewski and Quentin Brown from the St Peter’s Singers.

Dr Lindley said the “glorious” selection of music had been chosen to reflect themes of “reminiscence and recollection”.

Tomorrow’s concert starts at 12.30pm and is part of a season of events, activities and acts of remembrance being held at Leeds Minster to mark the centenary of the end of the First World War.

The season includes an installation of silhouettes – tying in with a nationwide initiative called There But Not There – that represent the 76 men associated with the church whose names are recorded on its war memorial.

The Yorkshire Evening Post tomorrow begins a major series called Armistice 100 that will run until the November 11 centenary of the war’s end.